Everyone loves a travel deal. FOMO (fear of missing out) looms large when a multitude of websites send flight deals your way on a daily basis.
But as luck would have it, these awesome deals never seem to depart from your home airport. Don’t be deterred. Level up your flight booking skills and add the positioning flight to your arsenal of travel tools.
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What Is a Positioning Flight?
To put it simply, a positioning flight is a flight purchased for the sole purpose of getting to another airport to start your primary trip, whether it be to lessen the cost of a trip or to just get you where your preferred airline will be flying from. Typically, a positioning flight is used for international travel, but there could be instances when even a domestic flight is worth positioning for.
Often, a positioning flight is within the U.S. but sometimes it’s feasible to position to Canada or Mexico. Importantly, this means when you land at your positioning airport, if you have checked bags you will need to retrieve them and check them again with the airline you will be flying for the rest of your trip.
Why Would You Book a Positioning Flight?
Most of us are in the habit of booking a single flight reservation from our home airport to our desired destination. If you live in a smaller city or a city without many international connections, a routing from your home airport usually involves a layover at a major international airport hub. Typically, this routing option is much more expensive than those flight deals that keep popping up in your inbox.
The fact is that most of those amazing deals originate from a large international airport gateway such as Los Angeles (LAX), New York City (JFK), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW) or Miami (MIA).
An inexpensive positioning flight, booked separately, lets you take advantage of sale pricing, while saving you money that can be used for other vacation expenses. And, maybe even more satisfying, you get boasting rights for scoring an incredible deal.
Saving money isn’t the only reason you might book a positioning flight. You might want to position to experience a higher level of service. Airlines like Etihad, All Nippon Airways and Qatar Airlines offer some of the most luxurious flight experiences in the sky, yet they only fly to select U.S. airports.
Positioning flights may be necessary when booking with frequent flyer miles. Often, award redemptions are difficult to find from regional airports or if you can find them, cost many more points. If you have a specific airline product you wish to fly, for example, Qatar’s outstanding Q-suites business class, positioning may be your only option.
Positioning Flight Example
Let’s look at using a positioning flight to take advantage of a sweet spot in Iberia Airlines’ frequent flyer program—Iberia Plus. Iberia’s distance-based chart offers some terrific, low-priced award redemptions on certain routes from the U.S. East Coast to Europe.
With Iberia’s frequent flyer program, it costs 34,000 Avios (Iberia’s frequent flyer currency) plus $118.30 in taxes and fees to fly from New York City (JFK) to Madrid (MAD) in business class, one way.
Business class includes airline lounge access at the airport (free food and an open bar), lie-flat seats, meals, drinks and snacks on the plane. Sounds amazing, right? All good if you live in New York City. But what if you live in Atlanta?
Finding and Selecting a Positioning Flight
The first step is to find an inexpensive positioning flight. Even if your main flight is in business class, a positioning flight in economy may be fine, since it’s usually a short hop. Searching Google Flights pulls up these Delta Air Lines ATL to NYC economy-class alternatives for our example situation.
The Iberia JFK to MAD flight departs at 5:00 pm, so the first three flights, all $99, are possible candidates for a positioning flight. Taking the first flight departing at 7:15 am and arriving at 9:29am provides the most connection time at seven and a half hours. To be even safer, you could fly out the day before and spend a day exploring New York City before hopping on your Madrid flight.
It’s helpful to figure out what’s involved in making the connection at JFK in terms of transiting the airport. A quick search reveals that Delta Air Lines uses JFK Terminal 4 and Iberia typically departs from Terminal 8, although occasionally this may change.
The JFK airport map shows that taking an exterior train is necessary between Terminal 4 and Terminal 8, so you need to allow time for this. Since these are different buildings, it means you’ll be leaving the secure area of Terminal 4 after you arrive and going through security at Terminal 8.
If you’ve checked luggage, you’ll have to claim it at Terminal 4 and bring it with you to Terminal 8 where you’d recheck it and then pass through security.
An added bonus of flying through JFK is the multiple airline lounges in Terminal 8 accessible to you flying as a Oneworld business-class passenger.
There’s also an American Express Centurion lounge and a Delta Sky Club in Terminal 4, so if you’re an The Platinum Card® from American Express cardholder, you’d have access to those lounges as well (Terms apply). If you’re lounge-hopping, make sure to leave plenty of time to get to your departure terminal and gate.
So which flight to choose? The 7:15 a.m. or 8:40 a.m. flights give you plenty of time to make the connection, grab your luggage and get in for a lounge visit (or two), but the safest bet, if you can do it, is to fly out the night before.
Going with the same-day $99 flight, our hypothetical trip tallies to a very reasonable 34,000 Iberia Avios plus $217.40 for the one-way trip to Madrid.
Caveats and Gotchas
If something goes wrong, you may not be protected in the same way as if you had a single ticket itinerary from your home airport. When you book a positioning flight, you end up with two separate tickets. The responsibility is yours to connect from one flight to the other. Here are two important points to remember.
It Is Not a Layover
Upon arrival from your positioning flight, you may have to exit security to retrieve and re-check your bag (if you checked luggage) and/or check in with the second airline (online check-in may be possible, but it isn’t always). You will then need to go back through security. Make sure you plan enough time for these activities, leaving a buffer in case things go wrong.
If you are on team carry-on and can get an electronic boarding pass, you may not need to leave the secured area if your flights arrive and depart in the same terminal or the terminals are connected on the secure side.
You May Not Be Protected if You Miss Your Flight
When you are traveling on two separate tickets, the second airline is under no obligation to accommodate you if you miss your flight due to a delay with your first flight. Leave ample time to check in, check luggage and transfer between the two flights.
While many airlines follow a “flat tire” rule and will try to help you, they generally are under no obligation to do so. And remember that many international flights depart only once or twice a day, so missing the flight, even if you are accommodated, could mean you’re losing a day from your trip.
If possible, spend a night in the positioning city at each end of the trip to give yourself more breathing room. Nothing will ruin your trip faster than missing the flight to your vacation destination.
Positioning Like a Pro
Once you understand both the benefits and the risks of using positioning flights, you’re ready to book. Before you get out your credit card, here are some tips to help you use positioning flights like a pro.
- Positioning flights are some of the best opportunities to use a low-cost airline: If you think about your positioning flight as merely transport to get to the main flight, that might open up opportunities to use air carriers you might not otherwise fly. Positioning flights are often short hops and, while you may want a business class seat internationally, it is substantially less important on a sub two-hour flight. Airlines like Frontier or Spirit can come in handy for low prices when creature comforts on board may not matter on a shorter flight.
- Use your positioning flight as an opportunity for a side vacation: Fly into your gateway airport a day or two early, book a hotel and explore the city that you will be flying from. If you don’t plan on spending a full day there, having a credit card with lounge access or even paying for lounge access can make the wait more bearable. A quick google search will provide all lounge information for whichever airport you will be transiting through.
- Keep an eye out for schedule changes on your flights: Delays or rescheduling could completely derail your positioning plan. Don’t get caught out on the day of travel. Monitor your flights.
- Enroll in the trusted travel programs that will save you time and hassle. Considering the amount of possible security checks, trusted traveler programs like TSA PreCheck, Global Entry and CLEAR® Plus can save you loads of time and convenience so that you can spend more time relaxing between flights instead of standing in line with your shoes off.
- Travel only with carry-on luggage if possible. Checking bags means spending precious time waiting at bag claim and then checking your luggage again prior to your main flight.
- Familiarize yourself with the airport that you’ll be changing flights in. Knowing the layout of the airport and probable distance between your positioning flight arrival and the main flight departure will help you calculate how much time is needed for the connection at a minimum. This is particularly important if you are checking luggage and flying the positioning flight on the same day.
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Bottom Line
The positioning flight is a useful strategic tool that helps you get the flights you want at the price you want. It is not a difficult process, it just requires a little bit of time and effort—but the payoff can be immense. No matter where you live, positioning flights can be advantageous for your future travels and help to unlock more deals than you ever thought may be possible.
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